Daily PUMA Column - Commentary by Alessandro Machi

Showing posts with label foreclosure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foreclosure. Show all posts

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Judges Suddenly paying attention to Banksters that abuse the system and are starting to take them on! Better now than never.

The more people blog about bankster abuse, the harder it will be for judges to ignore the situation. News reporters are finding it easier to gauge home owner and credit card user's experiences by googling. This in turn makes it easier for the reporter to focus on the judges. It appears some judges are starting to turn the tables on the banksters.




I could see this particular case being overturned on appeal based on one technicality, the couple had no equity in the home and the bank could probably argue that they needed to put their resources into helping homeowners that had at least some equity in their home.

However, if it turns out that the bank was basically trying to scoop up as many homes into foreclosure as they could, then the case may hold up even on appeal. I wish the judge could have found a case where the homeowners had equity in their home, but, at least the judge is making a statement to the banks, and that is the most important thing of all.

The next step would be to pass a federal law that nobody can be evicted from their own home without a judge's decree. This would ensure that the bank follows the proper guidelines before evicting a homeowner.
Presently, tax payer funded law enforcement is being used by the banksters to evict homeowners without any judicial notification or approval, and that needs to change.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Families in Foreclosure

Families in Foreclosure - Click on the Families in Foreclosure link to see the heart wrenching ABC video about a US Vet now working in the private sector who was injured on the job and went on disability. Husband, wife, daughter, son and family dog are being evicted from their home in Mason, Ohio, not for credit card debt nor for living beyond their means.

In my opinion the Video takes a creepy turn at the end when it focuses on the neighbors helping the family leave by midnight so the family can collect a 2,000 dollar check from the realtor.

The video tries to create an "It's a Wonderful Life" feeling because the neighbors pitched in to help the family move out by midnight. It was a nice gesture by the neighbors for sure, but what were the actual details surrounding the eviction? Was it really necessary? The man had no credit card debt and drove a ten year old car, and the family home was an econo-town home.

The townhome had dropped over 20% in value from when it was first purchased SIX YEARS AGO. I'm just throwing this out there, he may have been injured in a private sector job, but it is also possible it was a pre-existing condition from the time he spent in the military.

I say this based on my discussion with a former vet who actually hurt his back in the military and refused disability and works to this day lifting and setting up equipment. They tend to have a level of personal pride that is just not matched by society's upper crust, the ones that tend to sit around counting their every shrinking profits.

In the meantime, I am really suspicious why, if he has to be evicted, he could not just rent the place out instead. The home was not that expensive, the monthly rent could have easily paid the house payment and even given him an extra hundred bucks or two.

I hope he was not taken advantage of by the system.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

SHOWDOWN IN CHICAGO, a United Front Against the Banks, Almost, but not Really.

Click here for the most recent DailyPUMA article.

When Barack Obama "won" the 2008 democratic primary and the 2008 election, groups as diverse as bankers in suits and the everyday younger tecknogeek dressed up for the celebration.


Showdown in Chicago reminds me of the numerous situation comedy skits where the main character has inadvertently set up two dinner dates at the exact same time and place and tries to prevent each "date" from seeing each other. The main character keeps excusing themselves from one dinner table to go to the other dinner table so they can spend time with their "co-dates".

Usually there are a set of eye glasses involved that have to be put on for one of the dates, but then taken off before approaching the second date. Many many bathroom visits provide the impetus for the double dipping dater to flit from one dining table to the other. Eventually, the main character gets confused and leaves the glassed on for the wrong date and is found out by both dates. Hilarity ensues (oh how ironic the word Hilarity really is.) as both dates find out that they have been two timed.



The main character in our sit com is none other than....Barack Obama! Yep, Bankers are descending upon Chicago from all over the country the final weekend of October 2009 while dozens and dozens of community activist groups, the kind that most likely overwhelmingly supported Barack Obama not only in the 2008 presidential election, but also in the democratic primaries as well, will also descend upon Chicago to protest the bankers. Poor Barack Obama, what is he to do?

Can Barack Obama successfully flit from his date with the bankers to his date with the community activists at the very same time without being noticed?
Does anyone get the serious irony going on here? Maria Shriver starts up a womans group to promote women's run for public office a year after choosing Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton. Then Michael Moore releases his movie a year after absolutely spitting on anything and everything HIllary Clinton, the very people who would have supported his movie as strongly as any other group out there.

Now we have activist groups who helped Barack Obama win against Hillary Clinton coming from all over the country to Chicago to protest the bankers, the very same bankers that are Barack Obama's best friends, sit in his inner circle, and are among the people he most admires and is constantly talking on the phone to, and whom may have colluded in some mysterious way to allow tens of millions of dollars in fake credit card campaign donations to freely flow in to Barack Obama's 2008 campaign!



Die Fledermaus anyone? (no I'm not that cultured, but I did videotape several operas years ago after first sleeping at a Holiday Inn). " 'Ha ha Ha', let us get this farce on the road" a famous line from Die Fledermaus as everybody awaits to dance at the ball, each wearing a mask to hide their true identity.

Everybody showing up at the Barack Obama Bankers Ball in Chicago, be they the jilted lovers, or estranged wife, or future mate, will have a ball as they wait to dance with the main man, Barack Obama.

All you community activist ACORN type protestors, if only you had just voted for Hillary Clinton, I am pretty certain she would not have been in the pocket of the bankers to the extent that Barack Obama appears to be. So, knock yourself out this coming weekend in Chicago, protest the banks that are Barack Obama's biggest supporters even as you swoon for a glimpse of the exalted one himself.

Wow, German farcical opera actually coming to life in 2009 in Chicago. All of this could have been avoided if the yoots (aka youths) could have just learned to respect their elders rather than ridicule them for not knowing how an Ipod works.How will you know that the protestors are fervently Barack Obama supporters who still believe in him? You won't see any "Hillary Clinton we are Sorry" signs anywhere when they probably should be considering carving that message into their own flesh.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Six Simple Ideas to help people, the economy, and reduce foreclosures.

1. All Renters should be allowed to fully deduct their yearly rent charges on their income tax. The renter's "deduction / savings" would automatically be deposited into a 4% interest bearing account that could be spent on education, medical emergencies / insurance, or used towards a down payment on a home.

2. Instantly reduce ALL primary home mortgages to a Fixed 4% interest rate.

3. Send Full Tax Disclosure statements to all tax payers that calculate and reveal the SUM TOTAL of all the taxes they paid throughout the prior year.

4. Reduce interest rate charges on ALL credit card debt that is older than 1.5 years to zero percent for those that can keep on making their monthly payments.

5. An Additional credit card incentive, pay twice the monthly minimum due and ALL INTEREST RATE CHARGES FOR THAT MONTH ARE WAIVED.

5. Make Tax Refund Checks instantly depositable into special savings accounts that pay 4%, allow citizens the ability to deposit a matching amount as well, don't tax the interest from this account.

6. Make balloon mortgages illegal, instead, have the monthly mortgage slowly inflate, even if it is a month by month increase, have it be such a small amount that the mortgage payer can afford the increases for a few years after the increases have started.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

The Bailout Noise and Stimulus Package Succeeds in Obfuscating the Real Heart of the Matter.


Barack Obama wants to reprise the role of the Grinch as he throws 1/2 trillion dollars from his sleigh (not counting tax cuts), back to the very people who were robbed in the first place.

Oh wait a minute, the Grinch did a much better job of returning the stolen goods to those who actually were robbed. I suppose one could say that the robbery happened under George Bush, and that Barack Obama is just picking up the pieces and "redistributing" the lost wealth as best he can.

Whatever your view of the sub-prime mortgages that first fueled, then fooled, then unspooled the economy, the one thing that stands out, and that is conveniently ignored by the elite of our society is...overnight increases in home mortgage payments that rise more than 10% are unethical, will, and did crash & burn the economy.

Instead of sub prime mortgage programs that wildly spike at the five year mark, what if the homeowners monthly payment started going up at the five year mark by just one percent (not the interest rate, but the monthly payment plus one percent, then the next month the monthly payment plus 2 percent) each month when the subprime loans vested after five years? What would have happened? Customers would have had their own built in "bailout plan" in the form of TIME.

If subprime loans SLOWLY ESCALATED the customer would have had PLENTY of TIME to sell their home if they found they could not keep up with the increasing payments.

Rather than force homeowners out of their home practically overnight, the homeowner could easily have had another six months to five years to sell their home WHILE STILL MAKING THEIR MONTHLY PAYMENTS TO THE BANKS!

Sub-prime borrowers would have made educated guesses as to how long they could afford their slowly escalating mortgages, and would have been much more likely to sell their homes in a timely fashion without being desperate when they did it. Just as importantly, the homeowner would have continued making their payments. Instead, as structured, the sub prime mortgage five year spike resulted in many homeowners simply giving up and even walking away from the home.

A SLOW ESCALATION in the monthly mortgage payment would have been a more responsible method for both stimulating the economy without it collapsing almost overnight. I believe somebody should go on trial over the design of the sub-prime mortgage program. Millions of consumers in the US and elsewhere had their sub-prime loans converted to foreclosure simply because the overnight price escalation was an abomination they could not afford.

Homeowners who bought into sub prime loans, in many instances were lured there by bankers and other money people who told them they would be foolish to not invest in a home purchase if the cost to own was not that much higher than renting. Add in the lure of rising home property values, and in most instances this was no different than entrapment.

Yes, it is possible that the sub prime mortgage industry was a plot to first falsely escalate both the economy and real estate values, and then cause the almost immediate foreclosure and LOSS of EQUITY to practically everybody in the country. Meanwhile, Credit Card Debt now remains at a record all time high as a ratio of credit card debt to total home equity in the United States. The banks appear to have won every which way even as they clamored for more bailout money.

The banks have really made out a lot better than the media tends to report. There seems to be a latent desire to scarlet letter law abiding citizens so they can be taxed and charged excessively in the future,because of past sub-prime mortgage failures. "Oh, you had a subprime loan that turned into a foreclosure? Well, you'll have to pay a penalty in the future for our fraudulent and unfair subprime loan scam that heavily contributed to your practically overnight foreclosure in the past".

Will anybody enact a law that limits how quickly a home mortgage payment can escalate from one month to the next? The sub prime loan swindlers not only got away with the past sub prime mortgage scam, they also have been given bailout money for the next great swindle as well, and the consumers that were victimized by the sub-prime loan received a scarlet letter stamped on their forehead that will cost them dearly the next time they attempt to purchase a home or buy a car.

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